May 13, 2013. Rosstat (the Federal State Statistics Service) recently carried a report on the inflation rate in April 2013. According to the Service, inflation rate in Russia came to 0.5% last month and to 2.4% since the beginning of the year, Bank Koltso Urala’s press service reports.

According to the data provided by Rosstat, the food prices rose by 0.7% last month, the prices of non-food items increased by 0.4%, and the price of services went up by 0.5%. The food prices rose due to the traditional seasonal increase in the price of imported fruits and vegetables and also because of the last year’s draught. Bread and pasta grew 15.1% (against 4.8% in January-April 2012) and 11% (against 0.6% in January-April 2012) more expensive, respectively.

The increase in the housing bills figures (9.8%) and transportation rates (9.8%) was due to the artificially lowered rates in the pre-election period in January and April 2012 (when prices only went up by 1.4% and 5.3%, respectively). At the same time, gasoline prices rose much faster a year earlier: the growth rate was 11.8% then against 8.9% January-April 2013.